The 23rd American Heart Association Heart Ball will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Feb. 4 at the Broadmoor International Center. The event includes a gourmet dinner, silent and live auctions, and dancing to local band Phat Daddy and the Phat Horn Doctors.
The event sponsor is Spectranetics Corp.

The Colorado Health Institute released a study this month, “Profile of the Uninsured,” which highlights the state’s uninsured population through 2004.
Based on the latest Census Bureau statistics, the report showed that about 770,000, or 17 percent, of the state’s residents don’t have health insurance, which falls above the 15.7 percentage for the nation. More than three-fourths – 77.8 percent – of Colorado’s uninsured population were working age adults between 18 and 64.

Business owners, CEOs, managers, human resource professionals, wellness coordinators, risk managers and anyone interested in promoting a healthy work force are invited to attend a workshop about incorporating and maintaining comprehensive wellness programs in the workplace.
A national health promotion management company, Health Break, will present information about the components of a wellness program, cost containment strategies, expectations for a return on investment and examples of best practices.

Thirty-four grants, funded by Colorado’s new tobacco tax, which totals $8,688,269, have been awarded to state health care organizations and health departments to expand programs and establish programs for the prevention and treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease and pulmonary disease.
The programs include initiatives to provide free colorectal screening for low-income Coloradoans who don’t have health insurance, programs to ensure better and timelier treatment of strokes and a proposal for a mobile disease screening service for rural counties in southeastern Colorado.

The National Federation of Independent Business reports that the most important issue for its members going into 2006 is again the cost of health care insurance premiums.
According to an NFIB news release, “Small business owners do not have access to the same high-volume health insurance discounts offered to larger companies. This inequity in the system does not provide affordable health insurance options to small employers, leaving many workers and their employers without insurance.”

The American Society for Bariatric Surgery has recognized the Penrose-St. Francis Center for Bariatric Surgery as a surgery center of excellence. The ASBS designation is awarded to surgical programs that have demonstrated favorable outcomes in bariatric surgery.
Bariatric surgical procedures are gastrointestinal operations that reduce the size of a person’s stomach to minimize food consumption. The surgery, mainly used for weight-loss purposes, also rearranges the small intestines to reduce the amount of calories the body absorbs.

The National Research Corp., which measures health care performances, has named Memorial Hospital a Consumer Choice Award winner for the second consecutive year. The NRC selects hospitals that have high consumer ratings in quality and image.
The findings are based on the NCR Healthcare Market Guide Study, which involved more than 200,000 households, representing about 400,000 consumers. Memorial Hospital was one of 206 health care facilities recognized nationwide. There were 3,000 hospitals included in the study.

Dr. James Simerville is a board certified occupational medicine physician and pediatrician who retired in 2000 as the southern Colorado medical director for PacifiCare/Secure Horizons. Practice Net Solutions has appointed Simerville as the medical director of a collaborative program among the El Paso County Medical Society, the Dallas County Medical Society and the Travis County (Austin, Texas) Medical Society.

The Colorado Department of Health and Environment has appointed Rosemary Bakes-Martin, the director of the El Paso County Health Department, to a statewide, 16-member chronic disease committee.
According to the state health department, the purpose of the committee is “to set standards for and to review applications for $24 million in grants to be awarded for the prevention and treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic pulmonary disease in the state.”

The founding bishop of the Colorado Springs Catholic diocese, Richard Hanifen, received the 2005 Champion of Community Health award at the Peak Vista Community Health Center’s inaugural “Breakfast of Champions” event on Nov. 16.
The award will be presented each year to an organization or individual for one of the following: impacting the health of the community through advocacy, or financially contributing to a measurable community health initiative or significant fund-raising efforts for the initiative.

Memorial Hospital now offers a 30-minute test that provides data about how the brain processes, also measuring speed, memory and visual motor skills. The cognitive test – ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing) – is the first of its kind in the county.
“It’s baseline testing, and it gives you a sense of where your neurological strengths are,” said Bradd Hafer, a spokesman for Memorial Hospital. “It’s like fingerprinting.”

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations named Pikes Peak Mental Health Center the 2005 winner of the ninth Ernest Amory Codman Award, which recognizes excellence in the use of outcomes measurement by health care organizations.
PPMHC received the behavioral health care category award for its part in addressing substance abuse issues in the area.